In remorseless, greed-driven commitment to climate racism and climate criminality, Australia ignores top German climate change scientists who estimated in 2009 that the world must emit no more than 600 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) before 2050 if it is to have a reasonable chance of avoiding a catastrophic 2 degree Centigrade temperature rise. Australia 's annual domestic plus exported greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution is so high that it exceeded its “:fair share” of this terminal GHG pollution budget by mid-2011. Worse still, Australia 's commitment to unlimited gas, coal and iron ore exports means that it is committed to polluting the atmosphere with over 3 times the world's total terminal GHG pollution budget. Australia 's annual domestic plus exported per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution is about 70 times greater than the annual per capita GHG pollution of acutely climate change-threatened Bangladesh .

In 2009 the German Advisory Council on Climate Change (WBGU) determined that for a 75% chance of avoiding a 2 degree C temperature rise, the World must pollute less than 600 Gt CO2 (600 billion tonnes CO2) between 2010 and essentially zero emissions in 2050.

This means that the "fair share" of this global terminal greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution budget of 600 Gt CO2 (600 billion tonnes CO2) for Australia (population 22.9 million in 2012 as compared to a World population of 7,010 million ) is 600 billion tonnes CO2 x 22.9 million/7010 million = 1.960 billion tonnes CO2 = 1,960 million tonnes CO2.

Australia's annual domestic greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution was 578 million tonnes CO2-e in 2010 (this figure taking into account not just CO2 but other greenhouse gases (GHGs) excluding water (H2O) that were emitted e.g. methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) derived from land use) and accordingly Australia has 1,960/578 = 3.4 years at this rate to use up its “fair share” of the world's terminal GHG pollution budget.

However simple “cause and effect” means that we must also consider the GHG impact of Australia's huge coal, natural gas and iron ore exports to the GHG pollution of the one common atmosphere of all countries. If Australia left it all in the ground then this material would not be used to generate GHG pollution of the atmosphere.

However, Australia has huge reserves of black coal, brown coal, natural gas (conventional gas and unconventional gas such as shale gas and coal seam gas or CSG) and iron ore (which contributes to GHG pollution when processed industrially. It is accordingly useful to examine ti the implications of Australia extracting and exporting all of its reserves of these resources. The answers are quite shocking.

The major component of LNG is methane (CH4) which on combustion yields CO2 and water : CH4 + 2O2 -> CO2 + 2 H2O. CH4 has a molecular weight of 16 and CO2 a molecular weight of 44. Accordingly combustion of 16 tonnes of CH4 yields 44 tonnes of CO2 and combustion of 1 tonne of CH4 yields 2.75 tonnes CO2.

However CH4 is a gas, it leaks (an average of 3.3% in the US and up to 7.9% for unconventional gas from fracking shale deposits according to Robert W. Howarth, Renee Santoro and Anthony Ingraffea, “Methane and the greenhouse-gas footprint of natural gas from shale formations”, Climatic Change, 2011: http://www.sustainablefuture.cornell.edu/news/attachments/Howarth-EtAl-2011.pdf ) and is 105 times worse than CO2 as a GHG on a 20 year time frame and including aerosol impacts according to Drew T. Shindell , Greg Faluvegi, Dorothy M. Koch , Gavin A. Schmidt , Nadine Unger and Susanne E. Bauer , “Improved Attribution of Climate Forcing to Emissions”, Science, 30 October 2009:

According to the “Australian Energy Resource Assessment”, “ Australia ranks fourth in the world in terms of combined recoverable economic coal resources. Australia 's total coal resources are substantially larger than this with total identified resources of black coal being around 114 Gt and brown coal resources of 194 Gt. However, the full extent of Australia 's very large coal resource base is not known: potential resources have not been assessed because the existing identified resource base is so large. The resource potential of coal is probably in excess of one trillion tonnes. There are over 25 sedimentary basins with identified resources or coal occurrences and there are areas within these basins that need further exploration. Significant potential also exists in poorly explored basins across the continent” (ABARE and Geoscience Australia , “Australian Energy Resource Assessment”, Chapter 5 “Coal”: http://adl.brs.gov.au/data/warehouse/pe_aera_d9aae_002/aeraCh_05.pdf ).

If the “resource potential” of over “one trillion tonnes” has the same proportion of brown/black as Australia's currently proven and inferred resources (194.0 Gt brown/114/1 Gt black) then this would involve 194.0 x 1 trillion t/(194.0 + 114.1) = 629.7 Gt brown coal and 370.3 Gt black coal.

According to The Australian: “ Australia raised its forecast for 2011/12 iron ore exports to a record 473 million tonnes, from a previous projection of 460 million tonnes, reflecting expectations demand from top buyer China will remain strong…Australia exported 407 million tonnes of ore in 2010/11. Longer term, Australia's exports are expected to rise by an annual rate of around 11 percent to reach 767 million tonnes in 2016/17, the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE) predicted” (see “Australia raises iron ore exports forecast to record”, The Australian, 20 March 2012: http://www.cnbc.com/id/46802742/Australia_Raises_Iron_Ore_Exports_Forecast_to_Record ). At this rate of increase one predicts Australian iron ore exports of 1,048 million tonnes by 2019/2020 and 1,164 million tonnes by 2020/2021 i.e. about 1,106 million tonnes in 2020.

SSAB (the major Swedish steel company ) states that: “According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the iron and steel industry accounts for approximately 4-5% of the global CO2 emissions. This is due to the fact that steel production requires large amounts of energy, often based on fossil fuels. SSAB's steelworks are among the most efficient in the world” (see SSAB: http://www.ssab.com/en/Investor--Media/Sustainability/32/322/ ).

In 2009 the German Advisory Council on Climate Change (WBGU) determined that for a 75% chance of avoiding a 2 degree C temperature rise, the World must pollute less than 600 billion tonnes CO2 between 2010 and essentially zero emissions in 2050. Assuming an Australian population of 22.9 million and a world population of 7,010 million (2012) the Australia 's “fair share”of this terminal GHG pollution budget is 600,000 million tonnes CO2 x 22.9 million /7,010 million = 1,960 million tonnes CO2 per year. Accordingly, in 2010 alone Australia used up 1,708 x 100/1,960 = 87% of its “fair share” of the world's terminal 2010-2050 GHG pollution budget. However, on current projections, in 2020 Australia aims to use up 429% (4.3 times) of its “fair share” of the world's terminal 2010-2050 GHG pollution budget.

5. Australian miners are stealing the GHG pollution entitlement of other Australians (notably farmers) as well as of all other people worldwide.

For 4 decades I have been teaching biochemistry to second year university agricultural science students, many of whom come from farms. In recent years I have drawn their attention to the upwards revision by World Bank analysts Goodland and Anfang of man-made GHG pollution Robert Goodland and Jeff Anfang. “Livestock and climate change. What if the key actors in climate change are … cows, pigs and chickens?”, World Watch, November/December 2009: http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/Livestock%20and%20Climate%20Change.pdf . In short, Goodland and Anfang have estimated that man's GHG pollution is 50% bigger than hitherto thought and that livestock alone contribute over 51% of the bigger estimate. An alternative estimate is given by the Australian Government National Carbon Accounting System (NCAS) that states that “Around 24 per cent of Australia's human-induced greenhouse gas emissions come from activities such as livestock and crop production, land clearing and forestry” (see “National Carbon Accounting System”, Australian Government Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency: http://www.climatechange.gov.au/government/initiatives/national-carbon-accounting.aspx ).

I have told my students from animal husbandry farms that we are all in this together, that we all must face up honestly to the problem facing mankind and that one group in society cannot be singled out as we transition to zero emissions and thence the reduction of atmospheric CO2 from the present damaging 392 parts per million (ppm) to the circa 300 ppm required for a safe and sustainable existence for all peoples and all species (see “300.org – return atmosphere CO2 to 300 ppm”, 300.org: : https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org---return-atmosphere-co2-to-300-ppm ) . Put simply, I say “You guys milk cows or raise sheep, I drive a car”.

However Australian farmers have common cause with environmentalists and scientists over Australia 's huge exported GHG pollution. The iron ore miners, coal miners and coal seam gas extractors are not merely despoiling the landscape, variously violating agricultural land (notably through strip mining and Coal Seam Gas extraction) , despoiling aquifers, and generating a 2-speed economy through revaluation upwards of the Australian dollar, as shown above they are essentially stealing the terminal GHG pollution entitlement of other Australians as well as of all other people around the world.

The huge economic impact of the mining industry has horribly distorted public discussion in Australia . Thus Australia 's huge GHG exports are ignored in the public debate by everyone except the Greens. The neoconservative, pro-coal, pro-gas, pro-iron ore Liberal Party-National Party Coalition Federal Opposition (the Liberals or the Libs) and the neoconservative, pro-coal, pro-gas, pro-iron ore Australian Labor Party Federal Government (the Laborals or the Labs) have a common derisory, Business As Usual (BAU) policy of “5% off 2000 GHG pollution by 2020” coupled with unlimited coal, gas and iron ores exports. A common but utterly false BAU argument is that Australia is so small population-wise (22.9 million out of a global population of 7 billion) and that any GHG pollution constraint by Australia would be negligible – but as shown above, Australia has already exceeded it fair share of the terminal global GHG pollution budget and exploitation of its likely coal reserves would generate CO2 pollution about 3 times greater than the total permitted for the whole world before zero emissions in 2050. A difference between the Liberals and Laborals lies in the significant climate change denialism within the Liberals and the fraudulent and ineffective Carbon Tax-ETS policy of the Laborals that pretends to “tackle climate change” for a “clean energy future” while actually doing the opposite (see “Australian PM Julia Gillard's appalling record of climate change inaction”, Green Blog, 8 March 2012: http://www.green-blog.org/2012/03/08/australian-pm-julia-gillards-appalling-record-of-climate-change-inaction/ ). Indeed the Liberals have been aptly described as climate change deniers and the Laborals as climate change pretenders.

The Mining Industry has a malignant effect on public life in Australia . Australia , like the other Western democracies, is a Murdochracy (Big Money buys public perception of reality and votes) and a Lobbyocracy (Big Money buys politicians, policies, parties, public perception of reality and votes. Thus it cost the Mining Industry a mere $22 million in advertising to remove a very popularly elected Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in the June 23/24 2010 overnight Coup. The Mining Lobby is continuing a massive advertising campaign against the current Labor Government's Mining Tax (the Labor voter has shrunk to 30%, one of its lowest levels ever in Australian history). Australian Mining Australia reports “The nation's leading counter-terrorism organisation is monitoring some environmentalists following Government warnings that protestors pose greater risks than terrorists. According to Fairfax Media Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson has warned coal protests could have "major trade and investment implications" for Australia's economy” (see “Green groups are worse than terrorists: Government”, Australian Mining, 12 April 2012: http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/news/green-groups-are-worse-than-terrorists--government ).

In 2009 the German Advisory Council on Climate Change (WBGU) determined that for a 75% chance of avoiding a 2 degree Centigrade temperature rise, the World must pollute less than 600 Gt CO2 (600 billion tonnes CO2) between 2010 and essentially zero emissions in 2050. Australia 's high domestic greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution means that Australia would use of its “fair share” of this global terminal GHG pollution budget within 3.4 years. However Australia's huge coal, gas and iron ore exports and its consequently high annual domestic plus exported GHG pollution mean that in 2010 alone Australia used up 1,708 x 100/1,960 = 87% of its “fair share” of the world's terminal 2010-2050 GHG pollution budget and, on current projections, in 2020 alone it will use up 4.3 times its “fair share”.

However Australia's commitment to climate racism and climate injustice goes even further because the major parties (the Liberal-National Party Coalition and the Labor Party, aka the Lib-Labs or Liberal-Laborals) are committed to the same derisory, Business As Usual (BAU) policy of “5% off 2000 GHG pollution by 2020” coupled with unlimited export of coal, gas and iron ore of which Australia has huge resources.

Australia has had an appalling and ongoing secret genocide history that is hidden by a look-the-other-way culture, ignoring, censorship and denial (see “ Australia 's secret genocide history”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/australia-s-secret-genocide-history ). However Australia 's bipartisan commitment to climate racism and climate injustice means that it is committed to hugely disproportionate GHG pollution that is making a disproportionate contribution to a worsening climate genocide that is set to kill 10 billion people this century. Australia 's annual domestic plus exported per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution is about 70 times greater than the annual per capita GHG pollution of acutely climate change-threatened Bangladesh . Thus “annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution” in units of “tonnes CO 2 -equivalent per person per year” (2005-2008 data) is 0.9 (Bangladesh), 0.9 (Pakistan), 2.2 (India), less than 3 (many African and Island countries), 3.2 (the Developing World), 5.5 (China), 6.7 (the World), 11 (Europe), 16 (the Developed World), 27 (the US) and 30 (Australia; or 64 in 2010 if Australia's huge Exported CO 2 pollution is included). (see “Climate Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/ ),

Australian politically correct racism (PC racism) asserts love for humanity while being disproportionately involved in war crimes and climate crimes. The world will eventually respond to Australia 's dog-in-the–manger climate criminality through Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, Green Tariffs, Sporting Boycotts, International Court of Justice (ICJ) litigations and International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutions. Decent people will respond by (a) informing others and (b) urging sanctions against all countries (notably Australia , Canada and the US ) involved in disproportionate deadly pollution of our one common atmosphere.